Electric Vehicle Charging Best At Night?

The Institute of Physics has published a study that suggests the best time to charge electric vehicles, in terms of impact to air quality, is at night. While electric vehicles do not produce emissions, electricity generating units do, a lot. Researches from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Texas have specifically been studying ozone pollutants under three different charging scenarios in Texas for plug-in hybrid vehicles.

The first scenario was based on charging cars at off-peak times during the night, the second under the conditions of maximizing battery life by charging vehicles just before use and only enough to complete the journey, and the third by charging the vehicles just after use.

image via GM

The study found that overall, across all cities and hours tested, the least amount of harmful emissions occurred at night, especially because the sunlight wasn’t around to interact with the particles. The eleven-page report is available for PDF download on the Institute of Physics website.

Aaron Colter is a freelance writer and marketing consultant in Portland, Oregon. A graduate of Purdue University, he has worked for the NCAA, Dark Horse Comics, Willamette Week, AOL, The Huffington Post, Top Shelf Productions, DigitalTrends, theMIX agency, SuicideGirls, EarthTechling, d'Errico Studios and others. He is also the co-founder of BananaStandMedia.com, a free record label, recording studio, and distribution service for independent musicians.

When the time comes, and it will be in Eurasia, for electric cars to dominate, they will most certainly charge at opportune times, determined by computer monitoring of Super-Grids, for example, those now being installed in China as we speak. http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4971u00a0 explains new Thorium fueled LFTR-reactors or better, re-engineered for cheaper Thorium fuel in China, to power electric bullet trains, their human infrastructure, including short haul electric cars. U.S. will never be allowed, by the forces, Corporate and Capitalist, political, all Shiite faced ‘happy” with a Status Quo , in their respective ruts, collecting dividend checks on the way things are right now! Expect an obstinate, and anti-progress America to import foreign oil, supporting whole “parasite” nations for every hour they work, for every penny they spend on oil, until those nations abruptly declare the end, dry wells, and/or “share down” what they currently pump with China for larger gains in stable Yuan, even hastening that “end’. Google Hubert’s curves – see for yourself! – Then the Corporatist/Capitalists in U.S.will go to war, bomb the living fruck out of hillsides in threatening manner, even waving pistols in the air and demand the ground give fourth with more oil, threatening total nuclear destruction of earth if they not get their way. Any oil found this way, as was with the oil in Iraq, will appear at the pumps in the U.S. at world prices, and much will be sold to Asians for a good return. If no oil is forthcoming by these means, the Corporations, the Capitalists, will take their remaining money and run to Asian stock markets as the always have, and invest there in the Yuan, and human misery, leaving the same here in America. Electric cars? only if they can come from China for very very cheap, suffer a ten-fold price “rip-off”, to the public, have repair parts that can rip another huge hole in the purchaser on, down the road, and return blood-sucking profits for the Elite few who can manage to have them imported and retailed to the sucker working class here – we all knew that. Remember: ‘Batteries not included” the “Great American Corporate andnCapitalist Propaganda Whore’s” favorite line now.n